Salty Wednesday

Ohhhh, am I salty. Why? To be honest, various reasons…it’s been hot as balls in San Diego this week, and with no A/C, that sucks. Then this afternoon, a fire started on the hill at the end of my street and nearly caught my neighbor’s house on fire (two doors down, people…that’s scary close)…no property damage, no animals or humans hurt, thanks to SDFD (y’all rock). But the kicker, the REAL reason I’m nice and pissy tonight?

Google Alerts.

It seems yet another pirating site is offering up one of my books for free in PDF form. Sigh. Normally, it’s my already free titles that make the rounds via these sites, and as soon as I find one, two more pop up. It’s never-ending. It’s annoying. It’s now part of my job, checking to see who is illegally distributing my work. But this site…well…what’s unique from the others is that it shows the actual downloads of the title, so I can clearly see (and do the math) all the possible royalties I’ve missed from this one site. Just this one. Perhaps this week’s heat+fire combo lit up my inner bitch, but I felt the need to immediately post a comment on the site. Not much good will come of that, however, because it has to be approved by the site moderator – and y’all know they don’t want the actual AUTHORS on there.

Pfft.

So I screenshot the page. I screenshot my comment. And I’ll be sending the site a take down notice. Why post about this here? Because I can’t wrap my head around the fact that so many people are so eager to read this book…for free. The first was already free. It is a gift, a taste of the series so readers know if they want to invest in the rest. I just wish those readers understood that if the other books don’t sell because of sites like these, then the first book will no longer stay free. Such a shame. For all. I’ll share the screenshots here…

Beware though…there be spoilers.

So…did I go too far? Am I right to be upset, frustrated…salty? lol What are your thoughts on ebook theft?

Let me know in a comment below. 😉

And so my readers don’t feel shat on…I do love you, I do. These stories could be sitting in a ripped up, coffee stained, scraggly old notebook somewhere collecting dust. But nope. I published them for you. Just so you know, I love you all. But stealing, even if it’s just a $4 ebook, sucks hairy donkey balls, and that $4 adds up, as this post shows. And I’m human. And this human has bills and deserves to get paid for her work. Right?? xoxo